No One Had a Tongue to Speak by Utpal Sandesara Tom Wooten

Author:Utpal Sandesara, Tom Wooten
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

Long after relief workers began clearing the streets of Morbi, Maliya's fate remained a mystery to outsiders. The raging floodwaters had destroyed all communications and roads to and from the town. On August 13—the first full day of press reports on the disaster—most newspapers mentioned Maliya only in passing, noting that no reports of the town's condition were available. 82

Government helicopters began relief sorties over the blighted area two days after the flood, dropping food packets to the starving, rain-soaked refugees; based on what they saw through still-ongoing downpours, the helicopter pilots reported that buildings appeared intact but that little could be ascertained about the state of the people. 83 Later on the same day, a solitary survivor from Maliya arrived in Morbi and told eager journalists that, while the water had covered much of the town and dragged around a few people and goods, no one had died. Establishing wireless telegraph contact with Maliya in the evening, Agriculture Minister Keshubhai Patel learned that there had been no deaths in the town, although a dozen or so individuals might have perished in the surrounding farmland. 84 For the next two days, based on the emerging information, the newspapers printed reassuring accounts of the situation to the north. It seemed that the floodwaters, spreading out laterally to the east and west on their journey toward the Gulf of Kutch, had spared Maliya the wrath visited upon Morbi. 85

By August 17, however, a more sinister portrait was emerging. The Rajkot daily Phulchhab revised its previous report of no deaths, exclaiming, MALIYA-MIYANA WAS NOT SAVED EITHER: 190 CORPSES FOUND: 90% OF BUILDINGS DESTROYED; MORE DETAILS COMING OUT: NEED FOR FOOD, MEDICINE. The newspaper explained that, contrary to earlier accounts, Maliya had suffered tremendous damage:

According to our correspondents, the reports of Maliya having escaped from the destruction are false. The crops in the farmland on the edge of the town are completely destroyed. Houses are destroyed. The boats and household goods of the area's fishermen are destroyed. …The supply of necessary goods in the Maliya-Miyana area has been destroyed. 86

Seventy-four corpses had been discovered in the area, and estimates of the death toll ran as high as three hundred. One leading citizen claimed to have assisted with seventy-five burials himself. 87

The reports of death and destruction in Maliya met with considerable skepticism from common citizens and government officials in Morbi, Rajkot, and Gandhinagar. Because public officers had not certified the deaths, many suspected that the Miyanas were inflating the death toll to garner more sympathy and relief. District Collector A. R. Banerjee would write:

Initially on the basis of on the spot review…we had reported that though loss of property and house collapses, etc. were substantial at Maliya, loss of life would be around 10 to 15. But, subsequently, local people of Maliya viz. the Miyanas claimed more than 150 persons dead in their areas…. The validity of the statement made by the local people could not be ascertained. As per the statement of the

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